


Being Short is the Reason I'm Sad

by Demi_jos10



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Character Study, M/M, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 01:23:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16944351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demi_jos10/pseuds/Demi_jos10
Summary: Andrew Minyard's life was never going to have a happy ending. He isn't sure why he ever hoped otherwise.





	Being Short is the Reason I'm Sad

He should have seen it coming, really. Nothing in his life has ever worked out, and there’s no reason for this to be any different.

He was given up at birth, bounced from bad foster home to bad foster home, he met his brother and in trying to save him became his enemy. He’s seen as a monster by almost everyone he meets. Of course he wouldn’t be allowed to grow old and die happy.

It starts with a cough, which Andrew ignores, because it’s November and everyone has a cough. The problem with this cough, of course, is that it doesn’t go away. It lingers well into the next spring, past championships and into the summer break. He keeps ignoring it, because it’s just a cough, and he’s fine.

He can tell Neil is worried, though. Neil says as much, late at night, lying next to Andrew on a grassy hilltop, watching the stars. He sounds like Mary did, after Seattle, after Nathan. But Andrew hasn’t been hit with any pipes recently, so there’s nothing to worry about, he tells Neil. Neil doesn’t believe him, but accepts the answer nonetheless.

 

After this is over, if he’s still able to, he’ll blame Abby. It isn’t actually her fault, and he knows that, but it’s easier and he knows she won’t mind.

He’s still coughing when they have their mandatory medical checks before the next season. Andrew is in his fourth year, and he knows what to expect by now. He isn’t expecting Abby to take longer than normal to listen to his breathing.

His temples are starting to hurt from how hard he’s clenching his jaw when she finally pulls away. She allows him a few moments to relax his muscles before she speaks.

“I don’t like the way that sounds. How long have you had this cough?” she says, and Andrew already knows he isn’t going to like this conversation.

“November,” he answers, because as much as he knows he’s going to hate this, he also knows there’s no point in trying to avoid it.

“That’s nearly a year, Andrew,” she scolds gently. “I’m not trained in respiratory issues, so I can’t say anything for certain, but that’s a long time for a cough to persist. I think you should see a specialist, to make sure it isn’t anything more serious.”

Andrew agrees, because there isn’t really any other option. He knows it’s been too long, but it hadn’t been a pressing concern. But Neil is worried, even if he tries to hide it, and if Abby is going to start worrying, too, it’s better to follow her advice before she gets Bee involved.

 

Neil insists on coming with him to his appointment, so he leaves Nicky, Kevin, and Aaron at the house in Columbia on Saturday morning and drives to the doctor’s office with Neil in the passenger seat, ignoring the worried glances he keeps shooting Andrew’s way.

It isn’t much different than any of the times Abby has checked him out before the season or after a game, except he doesn’t trust the nurse and the nurse doesn’t give him any warning before touching him. He grits his teeth and bears it for now, but he’s nearly ready to hit someone by the time the doctor comes in.

“Good morning, I’m Doctor Parker. What seems to be the problem, Mr. Minyard?” the doctor asks, already reading the notes the nurse left for him.

Andrew sits in stony silence for several long seconds, before finally conceding. “Abby Winfield, the nurse for our exy team, said she didn’t like the sound of my cough and told me to come here.”

“And how long have you had this cough?” Doctor Parker asks, and Andrew can practically feel the moment he starts to write it off as a team nurse being overly cautious.

“Since last November,” Andrew says, and that grabs the doctor’s attention.

“That’s an awfully long time to have a cough, Mr. Minyard. Why didn’t you get it checked out sooner?”

“I smoke.”

“I see. I’d like to run a few tests. It could be just a side effect of your smoking, but the duration of the cough’s persistence could also be a sign of a respiratory infection, or asthma, or bronchitis, or several other causes. Now it’s likely that it isn’t serious or life threatening, so if you like you can skip the tests and just go home, but it will be easier to manage if we find the problem.”

Andrew nods, and they make an appointment to go over the results in a week.

 

He doesn’t let Neil come with him to the next appointment. He leaves the rest of the Monsters behind in the dorms. He trusts the other foxes a bit more now, at least enough to know nothing will happen to those he considers His.

By the time he leaves, he isn’t sure if coming alone was a good or bad idea. He calls Bee instead.

 

He knows he’ll have to tell Neil eventually. He’s already told Coach and Abby, and Bee is going to help him tell Aaron at their next joint session, but Neil is Different. Neil has lost so much already that Andrew doesn’t want to take this away from him, too, even if he knows he doesn’t have a choice.

He waits for the time to be right, for a moment alone where he can tell Neil the truth, when he can face the fallout without anything else getting in the way.  
He waits too long.

 

Andrew wakes up and he can’t breathe. It takes several moments of fruitless clawing at his throat before he’s able to drag himself upward and start coughing. It hurts, ripped from deep in his chest, and he knows he’s probably waking up Neil and Robin, but he can’t stop.  
He hears Neil ask yes or no and he nods, because he can’t keep air in his lungs long enough to say it. He feels Neil’s hand on his back, rubbing soothing circles, but it’s still several long minutes before he can breathe normally.

Neil helps him to the bathroom, and he curls over the toilet, heaving for a few minutes before slumping against the wall, exhausted. He just wants to go back to sleep, but he knows he needs to tell Neil everything.

 

Telling Neil doesn't fix it, not really, but it makes it easier. Sometimes Andrew will wake up and getting out of bed feels like dying, and Neil will distract Kevin until they're too far away to bother Andrew.

Neil also tags along when Andrew has appointments with the specialist he's been referred to. Doctor Davis is a nice enough woman, but she's the one who told them there's nothing they can do to fix this, so Andrew is biased against her. It's nice to have someone on his side in that situation.

 

Things progress slowly, at first. Andrew is tired more often. He starts missing classes. He starts missing practice. He loses his appetite. He starts to hate the taste of ice cream. He starts to hate the thought if eating.

Kevin starts hovering over Andrew constantly, knowing that vegetables won't fix the problem but pushing them anyway.

And that's the worst of it. It isn't even Andrew's fault. It's genetic, one last fuck you from Tilda, maybe payback she has no right to for steering her car into traffic.

 

Neil tells Matt, and Matt tells the girls. They all come to visit, even though Renee is the only one to ever have any fondness for Andrew. He doesn't mind. Neil needs them here.

He takes Renee aside, tells her he can't take care if the monsters anymore. Tells her they still need someone to look after them. Tells her, in as roundabout a way as he can manage, that she did well with her lot before she graduated. Trusts her to understand what he's trying to ask of her.

She nods. Her eyes are pained, holding sadness beyond measure, but she smiles, and that's how Andrew knows. This is their goodbye, and she knows it.

 

It comes to a head in May, well after the season has ended. Andrew has more bad days than good, spends most of his time sleeping or close to it. Sometimes he's awake but he can't move, can't speak, can't open his eyes, and those days are the worst. He tells Neil about them, and Neil spends those days holding his hand, talking about anything that comes to mind.

But Andrew can't stay in the dorms any longer. They admit him to a room in the hospital near Palmetto, where doctor Davis works. Neil is there more often than not, and the rest of the Foxes, old and new, cycle in and out depending on the day.

It's nice, not that he'd admit it. The chatter fills the silence before his brain can dredge up things he doesn't want to deal with. The Foxes are the closest Andrew has to a real family, and he doesn't want to give them up.

 

He’s been having trouble staying awake. Even when he’s aware of what’s going on around him, he can’t summon the energy to do anything about it. It terrifies him, but even that isn’t something he can act on.

One thing he knows, without a doubt, is that Neil hasn’t left once. He hears him talking, sometimes, about exy and Aaron and Kevin and Nicky, about anything that comes to his mind. It’s nice, something to fill the silence.

He wakes up, if it can even be called that much, to hear a doctor talking to Neil in a somber tone. He can’t quite focus on it enough to make out the words, but he thinks he knows what it is.

He feels Neil lace their fingers together, and he forces himself to listen, waiting for Neil to talk. Neil doesn’t say anything for a while, just holding his hand, thumb running across his knuckles.

Eventually, Neil leans up and places a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“Thank you,” Neil whispers. “You were amazing.”

And then it fades to black.

**Author's Note:**

> My mom keeps watching movies about characters with terminal illnesses, so this......happened I guess. All the medical shit I pulled out of my ass, because if Nora can bullshit medical care, so can I.
> 
> Special thanks to Maggy from the discord for the ao3 title.
> 
> Fun fact: my file name for this was "Real Sad Boy Hours 2: Electric Bugaloo" even though I have way more than 2 real sad boy hours fics.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at demi-jos10


End file.
